Maybe this is looking to far forward, but make chat rooms part of the threads package. Maybe for version 7.0 perhaps even 8.0. You could add a link in the menu bar that says "Chat" and up pops a screen with all the available channels. You just pick the one you want and voila! You can use the existing users and banned database fields and add fields for the chat room channels and transcripts (2 fields). Plus users that are already logged into the forums don't need to provide usernames or passwords to get into the chat.
This is an excellent idea of mine, but only because it would save a lot of money on a professional chat software licence that isn't threads because I already have the threads license <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />
